Sin City – Blu-ray Review

In an age filled with dozens of comic book/graphic novel adaptations galore, director Robert Rodriguez has thrown his own spin into the mix with his epic adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City. Stripping the artifice of conventional film making to its barest (and perhaps cheapest looking roots), Rodriguez created one of the goriest and silliest comic book movies ever made. While I myself was completely turned off by this so-called “film making” sham, which featured some rather striking performances and semi poignant character stories, the masses seem to embrace the living shit out of it . Inspiring a kind of ridiculously gory/ green screen mania with such films as 300, The Spirit, and Watchmen, this film became an instant cult classic upon its release some five years ago.

Well finally Sin City has come to Blu-ray in a special edition so jam packed with extras, you could practically get a film degree by the end of it! Starting with the film itself, the Blu-ray transfer of the primarily digital film looking remarkably crisp and really perfect in every way. The audio is as loud, blasting, and dynamic as a film about cops, hookers, bullets, blades, and LOUD cars as you would expect in 5.1 DTS-HD!

In the special features department there are various levels to navigate through. The first being the way you want to view the film, either in the Theatrical Version or the Extended, Recut individual stories put together. Over the Theatrical cut there are two commentaries, one featuring Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller and one featuring Robert again with additional comments by guest director Quentin Tarantino. Also as a bonus, Rodriguez has included an Austin audience reaction track to the film.

In the extras related to the comic book, there is a Blu-ray exclusive interactive comic called Kill ‘Em Good, which is sort of a choose your own adventure video game, which is really a blast. Next are Robert Rodriguez film school extras, which include a 15 minute film school, a brief all green screen song version of the film, The Long Take, Sin City: live in concert featuring Bruce Willis, and a 10 minute cooking school for breakfast tacos. Finally there are a host of featurettes for the film itself which include How it went down: Convincing Frank Miller to make the film, A Hard Top with a Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City, Special Guest Director; Quentin Tarantino, Booze, Broads, and Guns: The Props of Sin City, Making the Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up, Trench Coats & Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City, and finally the teaser and theatrical trailers.

Wwwheww!!! Well there you have it, one of the most fully loaded and satisfying special editions for an comic book film in recent memory! Go buy it!